


Pool Boy

by Dassy1407



Category: One Direction, One Direction (Band)
Genre: I'm tired, M/M, Secrets, Swimming, Weird?, haha - Freeform, pool boy, possible supernatural?, secret brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-06
Updated: 2013-07-06
Packaged: 2017-12-17 20:36:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/871724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dassy1407/pseuds/Dassy1407
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So Harry Styles can't swim and yet he's a pool boy. He just cleans them, and has no intention of getting in them, until he meets a certain boy who can't seem to be found out of the pool. Also, this boy may also be a secret that his best friend has been keeping from him for years.</p><p>Why so secretive with your extremely hot brother named Liam, Louis?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pool Boy

**Author's Note:**

> So I went swimming today (got burnt, yayy) and this idea came to me. I'm just proud that I wrote it and finished it without giving up! So I give myself props for that! Enjoy! xx

So basically Harry didn’t know how to swim and because of that reason he didn’t like water. But somehow he ended up getting a job as a pool boy, where he was constantly around water. While he always managed to stay out of the water so far (thank god for those really long sticks with the sucker at the bottom), he’s waiting for the day he takes a tumble into the water and drowns in some rich snood’s luxury pool. 

So yeah, his job kind of scared the living hell out of him when his sneakers would slip on the floor by a pool while he was cleaning it, but it paid well and he since his mom lost her job recently, he was desperate and Kenny’s Spa’s and Pool’s was the only place in town that had been hiring at the time.

Kenny was a great boss and gave Harry the easier pools to clean (by easier he means shallowest) and the older man usually took on the tough jobs himself. He let Harry take days off when he needed, which wasn’t often because his hours left him plenty of time for school and to hang out with his friends. Summer had been the most busiest, of course, but since his hometown was close neighbors to the very wealthy side, there were enough inside pools that needed assisting with all year around.

So it’s a week into school and immediately after his last class, his phone goes off.

He recognizes it as his boss’s number, but he hadn’t meant to be in for another hour to watch the store, but he answers it anyways. “’lo?”

“Oh Harry, thank goodness,” a woman’s frazzled voice comes through the line and Harry tries to recall the voice of his boss’s wife, and yeah, it sounds legit.

“Yeah?” he responds.

“Kenny is in the hospital, dear,” the woman supplies and then rattles on about how a client found him next to their pool unconscious. She explains that they think it was a heart attack, but he may have also hit his head, and he hasn’t woken up.

Harry wants to interrupt her and ask her the main reason for her call. Not that he wasn’t worried about his boss--he was a good guy and he obviously didn’t want him to die or anything, but he could tell the woman was getting distracted.

“Okay… so what am I to do with the store?” Harry finally cuts in. He sees his friends cross the hallway to where he was standing against a door and raise an eyebrow at him.

“It’s closed now but we have shipments coming in I think. Can you just go and check for that and see on the schedule if he had any more cleanings today? There shouldn’t be many but get them done. Keep the store closed though,” the woman instructs and then ends the conversation abruptly after that and Harry was pretty sure he heard someone in the back yell about severe heart attack.

“What was that about?” Niall asks once Harry hangs up the phone. He, along with Zayn are standing in front of him but Zayn wasn’t paying much attention. Most likely he was texting his recent girl.

“Kenny had a heart attack. I got to go in and cover for him,” Harry answers nonchalantly but then adds, “I hope he’s okay.”

“You afraid you’ll lose the job?” Niall laughs. 

“You hate that job,” Zayn adds.

“I could be worried about the health of an employer and friend,” Harry rolls his eyes and starts to lead his friends out of the school and towards the parking lot. “I also just hope he doesn’t have many appointments today. I was hoping for an early night.”

“Well since most outside pools are closed, you know it’ll be an inside job,” Niall shrugs. “Do you ever, like, snoop around their houses and stuff? Or, Oh! Have and cougars try and seduce you. Ya know, the whole ‘sexy pool boy scandal’?” he asks with a grin.

Harry rolls his eyes again. “Of course not. Most of the time the people are home anyways.”

“Louis would totally snoop,” Zayn says.

“Where is he anyways?” Harry asks.

“He left early. Said he had an appointment,” Niall shrugs.

“He always has appointments. He’s never sick, just has all these appointments,” Zayn points out.

“He’s from the south side. The richness are all about preventive care,” Harry chuckles because he knows Louis hates when he gets called a richness(kind of like highness but with rich. Totally Niall’s idea) by his friends, who were not as wealthy as him. Most of the rich kids went to a private school down the road, but Louis opted in high school to go to public school. There he met Harry and Zayn and forced them to become friends, and then Niall floated his way in at some point and then the rest was history.

The conversation drifts from there and they all separate to their own bus routes or in Harry’s case, his mom’s car that she barely uses now a days so he gets to use it most days, especially with his job.

Harry drives to the shop and goes through the back with his key. He finds the packages out front and brings them inside. Then he checks the schedule and is relieved to only see one cleaning tonight. He doesn’t recognize the address but he knew it was on the south side. He loads up the truck and heads out because the appointment was set for a half an hour ago. He just hopes he wasn’t going to get yelled at by some prude man that demands his pool be cleaned at this precise time because it screws with his schedule and yada yada.

But when Harry pulls up to the house in the van ten minutes later, he almost laughs because it’s Louis’s house. He never noticed the address of his good friend before, and he only ever rode along with Zayn when picking Louis up, but sure enough, it was their funny friend’s large house in front of him.

He gets out and follows the instructions that were scribbled beneath the address, telling him to just go to the side door that led directly to the pool. He gets out the supplies and carries them around to the house. The door was unlocked and Harry goes inside to see the large pool glistening. Harry wants to yell for his friend and demand to know why he never knew he had a pool and why they’ve never held massive parties in there, but he’s distracted by a boy swimming from one end of the lengthy pool to the other.

He can only see the boy’s back, which is broad and strong, and Harry immediately knows it’s not Louis. Harry knew from hot days in Zayn‘s above ground pool that Louis wasn‘t a very strong swimmer, and who ever this boy was was fast. Not to mention this boy had muscle out the wazoo and all Harry could see was his back and shoulders.

The boy breaks the surface and stands in the shallow end, shaking his short brown hair out. He and Harry almost drops the tubes and vacuums he’s holding because god damn this boy is attractive. He has dark brown eyes and lips that were made for pouting and Harry was right about the muscles because he was extremely large in that department and well defined. He could tell the boy was wearing swim trunks, but he couldn’t see anything clearly below the waist.

“Who are you?”

Harry snaps out of his daze as he drools over this boy’s dripping wet body, and raises his eyes back to the brown ones. “Oh, um, I’m the pool boy. Here to clean the pool,” he offers.

The boy furrows his brow. “Kenny was supposed to be here a half an hour ago,” he replies and moves backwards in the pool, going further into the deep end.

“Yeah, well, he’s in the hospital and I had school so I’m here now,” Harry answers and then moves back towards the pump. “It should only be real quick.” He tries to seem professional as he gets everything ready, hooking the hoses up and dishing out the right amount of chemicals, but he can’t help his gaze from drifting back to the pool where the boy was still treading water and watching him intensely. 

Harry moves to the edge and looks down at the boy. “So… uh, are you gunna get out?”

The boy bites his lip and he suddenly looks extremely nervous. “Uh… no?” is his reply.

“Well I can’t really clean the pool properly with you in there….” Harry trails off, gesturing with his hand.

“Liam,” the boy supplies and Harry smiles because that was exactly what he was aiming for.

“Liam,” Harry tests out and decides that he likes that name, especially because it belonged to a beautiful boy. “As much as I appreciate a good swim show,” he smirks, “I can’t add the chemicals I need with you in the pool.”

“Kenny does it,” Liam responds without missing a beat.

“I doubt it,” Harry replies and he’s only getting a tad frustrated because he wants to get the job done, then maybe he can find time for flirting with Liam later. 

“No, he does. I’m like immune to the chemicals and stuff, it’s fine. Just go ahead,” Liam says and then dives deep under the water.

Harry sighs and goes to the hose. He can at least do the manual cleaning with him in there. When Liam resurfaces though, a thought hits Harry and he frowns at the boy, “Wait, are you even supposed to be in here at all?”

Liam frowns and replies, “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Maybe because it’s not your pool?” Harry suggests. 

Liam snorts out a laugh and shakes out his hair. “Um, sorry, but yeah it kind of is my pool.” He moves his arms through the water, propelling him towards the stairs.

“Mate, give it up. I know who lives here. If you’re pool dipping, or what ever it‘s called, you can just leave now and I won’t tell,” Harry offers.

Liam raises an eyebrow and pauses by the stairs. Now Harry can see the boys swim trunks as he stands in the very shallow stair case and once again, damn.

“Wait… is your name Harry?” Liam asks, still looking perplexed.

Harry looks down at his shirt to find that he wasn’t wearing his nametag like he was supposed so, but then nods at Liam. “Yeah. How’d you know that?”

“Lucky guess. But I figured there weren’t too many pool boys with curly hair and green eyes that worked for Kenny. Slipped my mind, but Louis talks about you all the time.”

Harry’s mouth falls open just a tiny bit. “You know Louis?”

Liam almost rolls his eyes at him it seems but he just nods and slowly gets out of the pool. “Yeah, brothers tend to know each other.”

This time, Harry’s jaw almost literally hit the ground when it dropped open. Harry wants to shout and yell, ‘”Brothers!?” because not once has Louis mentioned he had a brother, but then Liam is shrugging like it’s no big deal and without a towel, the mysterious brother disappears through another door into the house.

~

Harry doesn’t get the chance to talk to Louis about his whole “brother” situation again until the next day at school. When Harry finished up with the pool last night, he got back to the shop to find a note from Kenny’s wife explaining all the details of properly doing paper work of each appointment and that took hours just for one pool. When he finally got home at midnight, he crashed and the Louis and Liam Brotherhood situation slipped his mind.

Lunch is their first hour together and Harry deliberately slams his tray down in front of Louis, making the whole table all jump and send him glares.

“Long night?” Niall asks, already reaching over and snagging crisps from Harry’s tray.

“A little,” Harry says as he sits, never once taking his eyes away from Louis.

Louis raises an eyebrow. “Do I have something on my face or am I just that beautiful?”

“Doubtful on the latter,” Harry responds coyly. “But do you know who is beautiful?” he asks the table and everyone just shrugs, assuming its going to be another one of Harry’s crushes. And actually, it kind of was.

But then he says, “Louis’s brother,” and Louis stiffens on the other side of the table.

Zayn and Niall are both quiet before Niall asks Louis, “You have a brother?” just as Louis asks, “You met Liam?”

Harry nods in response to both the questions and explains, “I took over for Kenny last night in his appointments an found your sexy brother swimming around in your huge pool. Which by the way, thanks for ever mentioning that you have a gigantic pool!” Harry isn’t mad and he’s trying to play this off in a playful manner, but for some reason he doesn’t think Louis is taking this lightly.

“You don’t have to know everything about my life,” Louis mutters, his expression growing dark.

“Relax mate,” Niall pats Louis’s back. “We survived in Zayn’s pool for the summer, no biggy. But the brother thing…”

“He’s my step brother,” Louis snaps. “Not a big deal so that’s why I never mentioned him.”

“Your mum married your step dad when you were 3,” Harry almost scoffs because that‘s basically brothers since birth.

“How old is he?” Zayn asks.

“Does it matter?” Louis quips.

“Well it will if Harry here wants to shag him,” Niall laughs.

“You what?!” Louis glares at Harry.

“Calm down, Lou, all I said was that he was hot. But he’s not like 13 is he? Because I was very close to almost ruthlessly flirting with him last night.”

Louis shakes his head, looking frustrated. “He’s our age.”

“He go to private then?” Zayn asks.

Louis just shakes his head and then stands up. “Shut up about him, okay? There many have been a reason I never mentioned him,” he almost yells and then before anyone can respond, he’s gone.

~

Harry tries calling Louis after school, but the boy doesn’t answer. He also doesn’t show up for school for the rest of the week and no one knows why. Harry wonders if Liam is like a secret in their pristine family of theirs and they keep him locked in their basement most nights. Or he wonders if Louis and Liam don’t get along and they ruthlessly hate each other and that’s why Louis never mentioned him.

Either way, the lack of Louis in their circle of friends really puts a damper on their daily plans of hanging out before Harry goes into work.

Which, Harry was doing more of because Kenny had yet to wake up and even though things were looking better with his heart, they weren’t too sure when he would wake up. Also, even though Harry was allowed to keep the store shut down, he couldn’t leave the appointments unattended. So he was cleaning one to two pools a night, plus all the late night paperwork. 

When Louis returned to school the next week, Harry had hoped his friend would be back to his old self, but he completely avoided Harry and Niall and Zayn said that he barely spoke to them. Harry tried confronting him, but Louis would just tell him to back off and then run away.

Harry was trying not to let it bother him, but honestly he missed his friend. He just hoped that once he had more time after Kenny was healed and back to work, he could work things out with Louis.

Except he finds Louis’s address on the list the following Friday and Harry kind of wants to pretend it wasn’t there.

But Harry was a man of his word and he decides to just get it over with, hoping not to run into Louis while he was there. Liam though, he wouldn’t mind seeing so much.

So he drives the van back to the house and gets all the supplies to the pool. He grins when he sees Liam once again swimming laps in the pool.

Harry moves to sit on the edge so he can be the first thing Liam sees when he surfaces. “Do you live in the water?” he asks when the boy breaks the surface.

Liam startles back from the wall and blinks through the water dripping down his face and looks bewilderedly at Harry. “What? Of course not, are you crazy?” he asks, shaking his head and quickly swimming over to the other side of the pool, away from Harry.

Harry smirks but it doesn’t last long because really, what kind of response was that? “I was only kidding, Liam,” he says and then stands up. When he sees Liam going to exit the pool he offers, “You can stay, ya know? Keep me company here on dry land?” Harry is a little anxious because despite his fluke with Louis resting in the back of his mind, he really wants Liam to say yes and stay here with him.

“I can’t,” flies out of Liam’s mouth before Harry can even think and then the boy is gone once again, dripping wet into the house.

~

Harry has a list. It is a rather long list, of all the possibilities on why Louis would have wanted to keep Liam a secret from his best friends. On the top of the list was “Is embarrassed of Liam” but Harry knew from his few encounters with the boy that he would get along perfectly with all of them. At the bottom of the list was “Liam is actually a dog hybrid” because Harry had a dream last night that Liam pouted at him and wined like a puppy and Harry just melted in his strong hands.

The dream went a little bit more that just cuteness, but Harry couldn’t find anymore possibilities from that. 

He’s prepared to show his list to Louis come Monday, but Louis seems to be continuing his “I will ignore you all until I die” fit.

It wasn’t until lunch that Harry decides to just confront him. He corners him in the hall before the other boy can make it into the cafeteria. “Okay, what’s the deal?” he demands.

Louis scowls. “Do you have a problem?”

“Look,” Harry sighs. “I’m sorry that I discovered your secret brother and all, but you can’t just ignore us like this.” Harry almost sounds like he’s begging Louis, but Louis doesn’t seem to be changing his mind.

“It’s better this way, okay? Just forget you ever met him,” Louis begins.

“That’s a little harsh, isn’t it?”

“And forget you met me too,” Louis continues and Harry stills. 

“You can’t be serious?” Harry blanches.

Louis nods. “I am. I’m switching to the private school next month. So you can just forget about me, and Liam too.”

“What the fuck,” slips out of Harry’s mouth and he almost wants to punch Louis because this was just so frustrating. “If I knew Liam was such an embarrassing subject for you, then I never would have said anything,” he snaps with honestly.

Louis’s eyes blow wide. “Embarrassing? Liam is not embarrassing for me,” he snaps back. 

“Then why were you hiding him from us?!” Harry is full on yelling. 

“It’s none of your business!” Louis roars with such intensity that Harry has no will to yell back.

Louis is red, he’s fuming so badly. His chest is heaving and his hands are curled into fists. “Just leave me and my brother alone,” he states finally and then storms away, opposite direction of the cafeteria.

~

When Harry explains the situation to Niall and Zayn, and also shows them his list, they are at a complete loss on why Louis was reacting like he was. Harry also over heard Niall whisper to Zayn, “Wish he never mentioned Liam.”

Harry knows it’s initially his fault that Louis was no longer their friend and switching schools even, but how was he supposed to know that something that insignificant would cause this massive blow up? Harry was more upset with himself.

When the end of the week came, he was disappointed to hear a message on the pool shop phone from Jay Tomlinson explaining that their pool cleaning appointments can be cancelled until Kenny was up and around again. Harry knew it was a direct request from Louis himself and Harry was no longer mad. He was hurt. 

So that was what caused Harry to be breaking into Louis’s pool room at 3 in the morning. He tried to get to sleep that night, but the entire situation was just raging on his mind and he couldn’t manage it. So he grabbed his keys, snuck to the store to pick up the keys that opened up the Tomlinson’s pool door from the outside, and then over to the house. 

~

He parks down the street, making him feel like a bigger criminal.

But Harry ignores this feeling of “this is wrong and stupid” and replaces it with “you’ll get answers whether you like it or not, either from Louis or Liam”. 

When Harry enters the pool area, it’s quite dark apart from the pool light that was faintly glowing from the deep end. He almost misses it too--almost walks right past and into the house to seek out Louis or Liam’s rooms, but the way the dim light shimmers, he takes a second look and sees it. At first he doesn’t know what it is but his fear sends chills up his body so that he flicks on the main lights to the room.

There’s a body at the bottom of the deep end. Harry runs to the edge and his heart jumps to the throat. Not just any body: Liam’s body. His body is practically sitting at the bottom, his arms floating by his sides. Harry sees a bubble escape Liam’s mouth and that’s all it takes for Harry to dive into the pool.

Calling it a dive would be a compliment though. More like he face plants into the pool, but either way, he is now pushing his way down to the bottom of the pool where Liam lay.

Just because Harry doesn’t know how to swim above water, doesn’t mean he doesn’t know how to make himself get to the bottom. That was something he was actually good it.

He keeps his eyes open and he is soon able to see Liam’s placid face under water. His short hair moves against the waves sent from Harry’s movement and for a moment Harry thinks once again how beautiful the boy was. But then Harry is hooking his arms under Liam’s and pushing off the bottom of the pool. When they break the surface, Harry somehow gets Liam’s arm over his shoulders and by any luck of chance, they weren’t too far from the edge or Harry would have surely drowned along side Liam. 

Liam is making a noise beside him but Harry is too focused to try and hear what. He releases Liam for a moment, accidentally letting him go under for a few seconds while he drags himself out of the pool. “Damn it,” he growls and then yanks Liam back out of the water and uses all his strength to pull the boy out of the pool.

“Liam!” Harry shouts in worry and then checks for a heart beat by putting his head down near Liam’s bare chest. 

“Harry? What are you doing?” Liam’s voice comes out groggy and water logged.

Harry raises his head in relief and smiles. “Oh thank god you’re alive,” he gasps.

Liam slowly sits up and doesn’t cough up water or look blue or anything like Harry would have assumed from someone that was resting under the water for god only knows how long. Liam looks at the water and then at Harry’s soaking went clothes and dripping curls. “Did you pull me from the water?” he asks.

Harry sits back on his heels and nods shyly. “Yeah…. I thought you were dead,” he says and then jumps up. “Lemme get you a towel,” he rushes off to where a towel was hanging off a back of a chair close by. 

“That’s not necessary…” Liam protests.

“Shush, you may be in shock,” Harry says and pushes Liam’s hands away when he tries to remove the towel that Harry drapes over his shoulders.

“I’m not, Harry, really, stop,” Liam pleads.

“What’s going on?”

Harry looks up to see Louis standing in the door way. He’s in his pajama’s and he was rubbing his eyes, obviously having just woken up.

“I saw the light on…” Louis adds before really narrowing his eyes in on Harry and Liam.

“Louis,” Liam wines and he’s still frantically trying to push Harry’s hands and towel away as Harry dries his shoulders off.

Louis’s eyes widen and he runs towards them. “Get off him!” he screams at Harry and Harry visibly flinches away from Liam.

“I’m not hurting him! I saved him” Harry yells back, but then notices the way Liam grows pale and his eyes are slowly closing. 

“No you’re not! You’re killing him!” Louis cries out and then he is shoving Harry away, hard.

Harry grunts as he lands on his side and watches as Louis yanks off the towel and then proceeds to shove Liam back into the pool.

Harry gasps and stands up, rushing towards the side. He’s ready to jump in again but Louis wraps his arms around his waist and yanks him back again.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Harry demands. “He was practically unconscious!”

“He needs to be in the water!” Louis screams and then Harry can see Liam push himself back to the surface. His paleness is gone and he’s moving swiftly against the water.

“Harry, I’m fine,” Liam shouts from the water and swims to the edge and Harry’s struggles against Louis weaken.

“I’m so confused…” Harry almost whimpers because seriously, what the hell is going on?

“I’ll explain if you promise not to jump in and try and rescue me again?” Liam offers him with a cute smirk and Harry can’t help but return it. 

“Liam, are you sure?” Louis questions and releases his grip on Harry.

Liam nods at his brother and then looks at Harry. “Harry…” he begins but then Louis blurts out, “He’s a merman.”

“Louis!” Liam gasps and then splashes a significant amount of water out at his brother. Louis groans at his now soaking pajamas but then just plops down on the edge and puts his feet in, pajama bottoms included.

“I’m not a merman, by the way,” Liam quickly tells Harry and Harry can do nothing but nod. Nothing has yet to make sense.

“I’m just…well… different? I guess you could say,” Liam shrugs and sinks a little lower in the water, the water going over his mouth and nose, leaving his eyes above water. Then Harry sees his mouth part open and it’s obvious that Liam is inhaling. He can see the water rushing into Liam’s open mouth and nose.

Harry’s instincts were to jump in again and what the hell are you doing? But Louis’s calm demeanor beside him makes him just stare.

Then Liam resurfaces and speaks, “I don’t technically have gills--trust me we checked--but for some reason I can breath under water.”

Harry slowly lowers himself to sit beside Louis, still staring at Liam. “So you are a merman?” he almost smirks but even though this is weird as shit, it’s also very fascinating.

“Does it look like he has fins?” Louis gently hits Harry on his arm.

“I’m sorry,” Harry pouts. “I’m just trying to understand.”

“Basically I can breathe under water and I can’t survive without being in water,” Liam shrugs again and he looks embarrassed. 

“But I’ve seen you out of the pool before. You left--”

“And ran straight to the bathtub,” Liam replies. “I wasn’t lying to you when I said Kenny let me stay in the pool, chemicals and all.”

“He knows?” Harry gasps.

Liam nods. “Not many people do, but yeah. He almost makes sure the pool is always pristine because it’s basically my home,” he responds.

Harry gulps and looks at Louis. “So this is why…?”

“I never told you about him because if his secret ever got out, he’d become the town’s freak show,” Louis sighs.

“Harsh,” Liam pipes in from the water.

“But it’s true,” Louis argues. “It happened before we moved here. You were just too young to know that those kids weren’t really your friends,” he says to Liam.

Liam grows quiet and he just nods before backwards butter flying away from them both.

Harry looks at Louis. “I’m sorry,” he says. “But I won’t tell anyone, I swear.”

“I know you won’t. And it might be nice, having someone else know,” Louis shrugs. “It can get stressful at times.”

“Like how?”

“He gets lonely a lot. Not many people know about him, obviously, and he’s always stuck alone in either the pool, or the tub. So I stay home a lot to hang out with him. Not that I don’t enjoy spending time with him or anything, but I’m glad he now has someone else that knows.”

Harry nods. “I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time with him. And I think we can also trust Niall and Zayn. You think?”

“We can ask Liam then,” Louis says.

“Okay.”

They‘re quiet for a few moments before Louis asks, “Do you like my brother?” in a small voice, his eyes watching his brother as he dives under the water again.

Harry also looks back at Liam and he doesn’t stutter when he says, “Yes.”

“Okay. Then I think it’s about time you learn to swim,” Louis replies before he harshly shoves Harry into the pool.

Harry struggles on the surface, coughing up water, but he can barely catch his breath because Louis jumps in beside him, making water rush into his face and making him go under again.

He’s really struggling when there are arms on his waist and his head is suddenly out of water. He shakes out his hair and wipes his eyes to see that Liam has him in his arms.

“Thanks, you saved me,” Harry smiles, putting his arms around Liam’s neck.

Liam grins and blushes. “Well you already saved me, so.”

“Technically I was killing you but it was the thought that counts, right?”

Liam laughs. “Of course.”

“Cannon Ball!” Louis shouts from the diving board and Harry hides his face in Liam’s neck as the water rushes at them again. 

“Take it easy!” Liam shouts. “He’s a beginner!”

“I don’t have to learn to swim as long as I can stay here the whole time,” Harry says with a cheeky grin and Liam blushes again.

“That’s fine by me,” Liam responds.

“Actually, the reason I kept Liam a secret wasn’t because of his water obsession, it was because I knew you’d be all over him, Harry,” Louis scowls.

“What’s wrong with that?” Harry asks, but he’s staring into Liam’s eyes.

“Too much,” Louis replies but Harry is just too long in the beautiful brown eyes to care.

~

Epilogue

So falling in love with a boy that couldn’t survive outside a body of water wasn’t an ideal fairy tail, but Louis just loves to make The Little Mermaid references. Liam tries to explain that what he has is a rare disease or some mutation (doctors have yet to figure it out, really, but Liam refuses to be tested on like an animal) and not a spell cast upon him, but Louis is relentless. 

Harry even joins in when talking about happily ever after. He knows he’s going to spend the rest of his life with Liam only after a few months of dating. Not only was Liam kind, funny, beautiful, and hot, but sex in a pool was absolutely the best thing ever.

Liam agrees to meet Niall and Zayn and once everything is explained, it appears they made an official new addition to their close group of friends. Louis also decides not to go to private school and that actually receives him a pleasant kiss on the mouth from Niall. (no one sees that coming, Niall included but it totally ends up working well for the pair).

Harry does eventually plan to take genuine swimming lessons, but he thinks Liam’s lessons (that end in sex) are the best yet.

“If you have to repeatedly tell yourself not to breathe in through your nose when you’re under water, then go ahead,” Liam offers one night when he said they needed to get somewhere with the swim lessons because he was tired of the shallow end. 

“I’m sorry if I want to be like you,” Harry jokes but then tries again. He ends up resurfacing moments later and reaching out for Liam’s waiting arms.

“I got you,” Liam assures, putting his arms securely around Harry, managing to keep them both afloat.

“Yeah, you do,” Harry says cheekily and then kisses Liam.

“We’re not going to get anywhere today are we?” Liam sighs against Harry’s lips.

“Nope. Just remind me to tell Kenny once he gets out of the hospital next week that I’ll be taking over cleaning your pool,” he says. “Don’t want him to be cleaning our mess.”

Liam grimaces. “And yet I actually live in here,” he says.

“Oh you love it,” Harry chuckles.

“I love you,” Liam offers.

Harry pulls his lips from Liam’s neck and smiles at him. “I love you too,” he says and goes in for another kiss, their mouths wet and slick. Just like I like my men, Harry thinks and then his mind and body are floating once again in the wave that is Liam himself.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it! Comment and let me know your thoughts? Thanks, love you!
> 
> Dassy xx


End file.
